Trade
Gemstones for HarperCollins
In 2006 CPM was asked to produce a new title for Collins’ well-known and much-loved Gem series. There were to be two editions – one in British English and the other in American English. Once more, our network of trusted freelancers provided us with… a gem: a copy-editor who was also a qualified gemmologist.
As we were working to a very tight schedule we had to run the two editions concurrently, which necessitated copy-editing the original manuscript and then using an Americaniser to produce the second version before the British English edition was complete. We liaised with the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, DC and HarperCollins’ office in New York and incorporated their comments on the American proofs. Print-ready PDFs were delivered three months after the initial delivery of the manuscript and the books were published only three months later.
Scope of the project:
Full project management; artwork commissioning; copy-editing; Americanisation; page layout; proofreading; indexing; delivery of print-ready PDFs.
Elvis Presley: Unseen Archives for Parragon
Atlantic Publishing produces illustrated reference books on behalf of a number of publishers, including Parragon. Atlantic subcontracted the production of an illustrated biography of Elvis Presley to CPM.
This job involved copy-editing the manuscript and producing an Americanised version. Although the text itself was short and informal, it took a good deal of work to rid it of too many colloquialisms and to check all film titles in case they varied between the UK and US. Photographs were supplied by two large picture agencies and, restricted as we were by a tight budget, we were fairly limited in our choice: film stills of Elvis in costume with his leading ladies, portraits of Elvis in glorious Technicolor, stills from his time in the US Army and stage pictures of Elvis in that white suit.
CPM’s project editor made the picture selection, our scanner operator scanned the prints and converted mono photographs to colour, and our designer made the most of our choices to produce a creative layout. On top of that, we were working to a super-tight schedule – both books had to be ready in six weeks!
Scope of the project:
Full project management; copy-editing; Americanisation; page layout; conversion of RGB scans to CMYK; proofreading; delivery of print-ready files.
The Gambling Handbook for Quercus
Following an initial brief from Quercus, CPM identified the perfect author for The Gambling Handbook: an online gambler who also ran a bookshop. Keeping to deadlines was a particular challenge – not least if the previous night had been a successful one – as was providing a brief for the illustrations, which had to be checked very carefully, especially during the step-by-step descriptions of the rules of each game. Luckily, our freelance copy-editor also had a more-than-usual interest in gambling!
Scope of the project:
Full project management; cover and text design; author management; copy-editing; picture research; artwork commissioning; page layout; proofreading; indexing; delivery of print-ready files.